Enlightenment:

• Explain how Enlightenment ideas produced enduring effects on political, economic and cultural institutions, including challenges to religious authority, monarchy and absolutism.
• Explain connections among Enlightenment ideas, the American Revolution, the French Revolution and Latin American wars of independence.

Systems of Government:

• Explain how various systems of governments acquire, use and justify their power.
• Analyze the purposes, structures and functions of various systems of government including:
  • absolute monarchies
  • constitutional monarchies
  • parliamentary democracies
  • presidential democracies
  • dictatorships
  • theocracies

Industrialization

• Explain the causes and effects of the Industrial Revolution with emphasis on:
  • how scientific and technological changes promoted industrialization in the textile industry in England
  • the impact of growth of population; rural-to-urban migrations, growth of industrial cities and emigration out of Europe
  • the changing role of labor and the rise of the union movement
  • changes in living and working conditions for the early industrial working class, especially women and children
  • the growth of industrialization around the world

Imperialism

• Describe the political, economic and social roots of imperialism
• Analyze the perspectives of the colonizers and the colonized conerning:
  • indigenous language
  • natural resources
  • labor
  • political systems
  • religion
• Explain the global impact of imperialism, including:
  • modernization of Japan
  • political and social reform in China
  • exploitation of African resources

20th Century Conflict

• Analyze the causes and effects of World War I with emphasis on:
  • militarism, imperialism, nationalism, and alliances
  • the global scope, outcomes and human costs of the war
  • the role of new technologies and practices including the use of poison gas, trench warfare, machine guns, airplanes, submarines, and tanks
  • The Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations
• Analyze the causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution including:
  • the lack of economic, political and social reforms under the tsars
  • the impact of WWI
  • the emergence of Lenin, Stalin, and the Bolsheviks
  • the rise of communism in Russia
• Assess the global impact of post-WWI economic, social and political turmoil including:
  • disarmament
  • worldwide depression
  • colonial rebellion
  • rise of militarist and totalitarian states in Europe and Asia
• Analyze the causes of WWII including:
  • appeasement
  • Axis expansion
  • the role of the Allies
• Analyze the consequences of WWII including:
  • atomic weapons
  • civilian and military losses
  • the Holocaust and its impact
  • refugees and poverty
  • the United Nations
  • the establishment of the state of Israel
• Analyze the impact of conflicting political and economic ideologies after WWII that resulted in the Cold War including:
  • Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe
  • the division of Germany
  • the emergence of NATO and the Warsaw Pact
  • the Chinese Communist Revolution
• Examine social, economic and political struggles resulting from colonialism and imperialism including:
  • independence movements in India, Indochina, and Africa
  • rise of dictatorships in former colonies
• Explain the causes and consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War including:
  • the arms build-up
  • ethnic unrest in the Soviet Union
  • independence movements in former Soviet satellites
  • global decline of communism
• Examine regional and ethnic conflict in the post-Cold War era including:
  • persistent conflict in the Middle East
  • ethnic strife in Europe, Africa and Asia